Why a Telco-Independent Approach Makes Sense for Global SD-WAN Solutions

As multi-cloud environments are becoming more common, the use of SD-WAN is now more essential than ever to provide the best possible user experience.

At Coevolve, we have been implementing a telco-independent approach for our global SD-WAN solutions — and we’d like to tell you why.

Telco-independent solutions give our clients the best access methodology

We have found that it is the best method of accessing the circuit underlay and that our clients have had the most success with telco-independent approaches.

We recommend a telco-independent approach to give our clients access to the best mix of access technologies — regardless of where their sites are located. Clients benefit from being able to access all available options, regardless of who is providing or managing the overlay. Even some advanced SD-WAN features, like multi-path optimization, benefit from a multi-vendor approach because they can enable true backbone diversity to mitigate problems in the underlay and deliver a usable connection.

While we have repeatedly found that telco-independent solutions provide the best services for our clients, we encourage clients to do the testing and math to look at what might be right for them. We have seen the amount of single-vendor MPLS networks decreasing over time across many different markets. But MPLS is not going away anytime soon. We try to focus on helping our clients build a network that is designed at an overlay level, rather than an underlay so that we can change the infrastructure over time as the market evolves.

What’s our end-goal with this?

Coevolve’s goal is to help enterprises adopt next-generation network solutions. We want our clients to get the most out of their technology in enterprise environments. While we have a wide variety of skills and focuses, SD-WAN is a prominent example of a technology where we work hard to find the best method of implementing it for our clients.

Our team is made up of passionate experts that focus on the ever-changing aspects of network technology, and the best way to implement those changes for enterprises. In particular, we pay attention to the life cycle of SD-WAN services. They change frequently and never stay still. The solution that is the best option now may not be the best choice six months from now.

For every one of our clients’ sites, we look at who the best internet service providers will be. Usually, it is a combination of multiple ISPs, but our goal is to connect our clients with the best possible provider in each case. Most of our clients operate on a global scale. We use almost 300 ISPs in more than 75 countries in our clients’ SD-WAN solutions.

A telco-independent case study

One particular client we work with is Hansen Technologies. They are a billing software company based in Melbourne, Australia, whose clients tend to be utilities, telcos, and pay-TV operators. Hansen Technologies has grown rapidly in recent years, and several recent acquisitions have helped drive this. Each business has a disparate set of infrastructure that needs to be integrated into Hansen’s network. The company previously operated a DMVPN solution, but that created high overhead costs with the layers of complexity. With over 400 tunnels, and each new acquisition needing around 30 more, they needed better performance levels.

About two years ago, Hansens Technologies and Coevolve began working together. We created a conceptual design and piloted it on a few tunnels. Within a couple of months, Hansen had implemented our solution over the entire network. Our solution vastly improved their network performance and allowed them to deploy circuits in active-active mode. They can also deploy sites into completely separate network segments if required. We leveraged SD-WAN capabilities to create the best solution for our client.

The phases we focus on with all technologies are assessment, deployment, management, and optimization. We strive to provide a full-stack network for our clients, with the right circuit underlay that drives the best possible outcome. One of our areas of expertise is in the service modules that make SD-WAN overlays come to full fruition. We integrate security, analytics, and automation into every step of the network.

Another core part of our services focuses on ensuring our clients have an independent underlay and an open approach to the SD-WAN layer. We encourage clients to view their systems as a fluid environment so that they are ready to implement the newest and best technology solutions as they arrive. This way, they will stay up to date and keep their network functioning as well as possible.

Multi-cloud networks are becoming more and more prevalent today, but the innate complexity of the underlying networks they depend on can cause some issues to arise. If you use SD-WAN to help streamline this, we are confident that using a telco-independent approach will ensure it’s supported in the best possible way.

Download eGuide: The Rise of Telco-Independent Networks